It is common practice to produce mascara compositions containing at least one wax. However, the wax is never used alone because make-up with such compositions proves to be very mediocre, leading to the formation, on the eyelashes, of a nonhomogeneous film which is reflected by the formation of thin films which crack immediately after drying.
In order to find a remedy for them, the joint use of at least one wax and of a film-forming polymer present in solution in the aqueous phase was proposed in French Patents FR 83.09997 (2,528,699) and FR 84.17661 (2,573,305).
Compositions for treating hair and eyelashes containing the combination of a silicone, a latex and an agent for suspending the latex and the silicone and/or a thickening agent have also been proposed in Patent Application PCT WO/92/21316.
Moreover, mascara compositions which do not contain wax have been proposed. Thus, an aqueous mascara composition containing, as film-forming agent, a synthetic latex has been described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai 57-62216.
Although these compositions have made possible a certain improvement in the quality of the make-up products, it has now been surprisingly and unexpectedly observed that, by using the combination of at least one wax and of a specific pseudolatex consisting of particles of a polymer containing partially neutralized carboxylic acid functional groups, mascara compositions were obtained which had excellent cosmetic qualities. In fact, after application, they significantly increase the lengthening and the bending of the eyelashes and, moreover, can be removed with water.
It is recalled that the expression "pseudolatex" is understood to denote a suspension consisting of generally spherical particles of a polymer, these particles being obtained by dispersing the polymer in an appropriate aqueous phase.